OK, well now that I've got that out of the way, I incompletely forgot about all the kick ass albums that were being released this week. more of a heavy selection this time around but all very good albums nonetheless. Well, there is one exception to the mix. The smooth mellowness of Bonobo has become more of an influence on me, now that my girlfriend introduced me to them. Simon Green has continued almost extended his previous work "Black Sands", which met with decent reviews across the board.
Of course we have some albums that I've been covering extensively. Killswitch Engage drop their first album in 13 years with original singer Jesse Leach. After a somewhat confusing falling out of vocalist Howard Jones, Leach and the band jump right back into action with "Disarm The Descent"; one of the metal world's most anticipated albums of 2013. Bring Me The Horizon's newest endeavour "Sempiternal" has really struck a familiar chord with me as I can't seem to get the first single "Shadow Moses" out of my head and off my playlist. They have really evolved as a band and given more 'oomph' in their work.
Also a couple bands on this list I haven't listened to in AGES! That means some major spinning is going to be happening in the coming days for moi. Alkaline Trio? Mudhoney? Dear Hunter? Yes indeed. From what I have previewed already from the groups, I got some high hopes on them.
So as usual folks, these bands wouldn't be making music unless you show the support. So take a stroll to your local record shop, online retailer or other legal source to pick up a few of these albums. Some will definitely be worth the money (as I have already bought a few). Cheers!
The choruses on this album will get trapped in your head, as evident on the tune ‘A Tribute to the Fallen,’ in which Leach sings, “You cannot break / This love with hate / A tribute to the fallen / Your choice is made / So go your way / A tribute to the fallen.” On the crushing song ‘All We Have,’ Leach belts: “Forgiveness is all we have / From here as time goes on / Nothing else will give you / A piece of mind.”
However, if recent fans are looking for a vocalist that sounds like former frontman Howard Jones, they won’t find it on this album. Leach brings a different spin into the mix once again and proves that he has only gotten better with time since ‘Alive or Just Breathing’ and that he is more than ready continue on with Killswitch Engage as their future frontman. -Loudwire
Alkaline Trio has long billed itself as a “dark punk” band, and at times it has lived up to that—lyrically more than musically. Following the gritty, back-to-basics angst of 2010’s This Addiction, the long-running Chicago trio has set an even lower bar for so-called darkness: basically, monochromatic, by-the-numbers pop-punk with the occasional hint of minor-key moodiness. Not that the group has ever aspired to much more than that—the problem is, it’s usually able to explore that narrow spectrum with a lot more craft and passion. -AV Club
Having recently released their split, War of the Gargantuas, with the legendary Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual), Texas thrash metallers Warbeast offer up their second full-length, Destroy, via Anselmo's Housecore Records. The follow-up to their 2010 debut, Krush the Enemy, Destroy is a constant onslaught of pulverizing, dissonant sounds and heavy, post-thrash riffs, featuring skilled musicianship and impressive, catchy guitar work. Machine-gun drumming and ferocious vocals, by original Rigor Mortis singer Bruce Corbitt, are also showcased throughout, while non-traditional songwriting patterns surpass the quintet's previous material. "Nightmares in the Sky" is an uncompromising assault, with unpredictable time changes and frenzied axe shredding, while "Egotistical Bastard" contains incendiary guitar solos, and the riffs in "War of the Worlds" are appropriately militaristic. Tracked by Anselmo at his Louisiana-based Nodferatu's Lair studio, the production is clean and enhances Destroy's modernized corrosive sound. -Exclaim
You can set Blodsvept on repeat, like the other six Finntroll albums, and not get sick of it. My eight-year-old is already growling along to Vreth’s vocals, and she doesn’t speak of word of Swedish. So what’s different, compared to earlier Finntroll? What am I hearing—or not hearing—that gives me pause? I think it’s the tone. The demented-carnival vibe so prevalent throughout Ur Jordens Djup and Nifielvind is a bit more subdued on Blodsvept, or perhaps more controlled. The music doesn’t seem quite as dark either, but rather simpler, more straightforward in its delivery. None of this is a bad thing. It did take a few listens for Blodsvept to grow on me, like musical fungus, but maybe part of my problem was forgetting to shut off my critical ear and just enjoy the damn music. -Metal Injection
In its brief 34 minutes, Vanishing Point delivers two primary messages: Mudhoney is still pretty damn good at being Mudhoney, and being Mudhoney isn’t as easy as you might suspect. In other words, juvenility with guitars — finding the right instrumental grime, lyrical clichés, and targets for hostility — in some flannel-clad sense, is a bit of an art. And it’s why that 14-year-old version of myself would have gladly taken the choice cuts off Vanishing Point, along with the entirety of Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, and told my neighbor, Brad, to take it away… far, far away. -Consequence of Sound
From "End Of Disclosure", to the brooding "The Return", each song is work of morbid art, hand crafted to annihilate your senses and disrupt every nerve in your body. Tägtgren’s vocals are unearthly, dissonant, yet vibrant with malice. His guitar work is equally beautifully disturbing, with amazingly brutal riffs and solos that are intricate and razor sharp. The drums are spine snapping and quite epic throughout the entire album, but really showcased on "The Eye". Last, but not least, Mikael Hedlund’s bass work is just really fucking good. It flows seamlessly between being the foundational to each song, to epically riffing with the guitars. Well played sir.
"End Of Disclosure"is another intelligent, well crafted, and beautifully disturbing album from HYPOCRISY that deserves, and warrants, your attention. Some standout tracks for me were "The Eye", "Hell Is Where I Stay", and "The Return". For a rating, I’d say an 8 out of 10. As always, stay well, and live free my friends! Cheers! -Metal Temple
The Dear Hunter‘s new record is beautiful. This we can expect. But the level, the delivery of its beauty, this is where songwriter Casey Crescenzo and co. take our breath yet again. Migrant is unlike anything heard from The Dear Hunter before. It captures a perfect blend of elegance and transparency, while still conveying subtle theatrics that fans have grown to love about the band. Where Migrant truly stands out among other The Dear Hunter releases comes in not what Casey has done on this record, but what he hasn’t done. It is not over-the-top, it is not engrossingly stimulating, it simply is. It stands unlike the rest for this reason. -Under The Gun
AFGM: BMTH - Sempiternal
For Sempiternal, the group has acquired the production skills of Terry Date (Pantera, Deftones), lost Jona Weinhofen as a second guitarist (he joined prior to There Is a Hell…), and replaced him with a full-time keyboardist and programmer, Jordan Fish. And the result is the sound of Bring Me the Horizon shamelessly indulging in the bands of their youth to create their own niche. The re-shuffled five-piece—completed by guitarist Lee Malia, drummer Matt Nicholls and bassist Matt Kean—hit the hooks that Linkin Park made their trademark on “Go to Hell, For Heaven’s Sake” and rejuvenate the stale dynamic for the year 2013. Meanwhile the influence of Sacramento alt-metal legends Deftones explicitly permeates the breathless “And the Snake Starts to Sing” and it works, as Sykes mimicks Chino Moreno’s angsty croon without irony during the ambient chorus as the instrumentation swirls in the style associated with post White Pony Deftones. -Pop Matters
At the end of the day, Prevailer is more of the same from For Today. A well-produced, solid, standard-issue metalcore album about the band’s faith. If you’re somehow surprised by this you clearly haven’t paid much attention to the band, their music or the band’s live show. Just about everything already said about this band applies to Prevailer, just in an abbreviated sense. If you like mainstream metalcore and Jesus, Prevailer is for you. If you like just one of those things, you still might like it. If you don’t like either of those things, this is most definitely not for you. -Under The Gun
Randomly named after a Congolese chimpanzee, British producer Bonobo, aka Simon Green, has gradually become regarded as his homeland’s answer to the likes of Flying Lotus and Nosaj Thing thanks to four downtempo edge-of-the-dancefloor studio albums.
Such is his status that he’s now able to call on the immense talent of Erykah Badu for his fifth effort, The North Borders. The eccentric Grammy Award winner is magically other-worldly as usual on the glitchy after-hours electronica of “Heaven For The Sinner.” But the album’s cast of relative unknowns are also more than capable of holding their own with the First Lady of neo-soul. -Music Is My Oxygen
Box Sets:
The Studio Albums 1972-1979 (6xCD) contains all six of the Eagles' Asylum studio albums from 1972 - 1979 - Eagles, Desperado, On The Border, One Of These Nights, Hotel California, & The Long Run - all packaged in a sleek, black clamshell box, with the albums in paper mini-jackets utlizing recycled paper stock. -Amazon
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